UK PM Starmer presses Sisi to release jailed activist

Downing Street said that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer on February 28th spoke to Egypt’s president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, and urged him to release a British citizen and activist jailed in Cairo, reported The New Arab.

In a readout of the two leaders’ telephone call, Downing Street said “the prime minister discussed the case of British national Alaa Abd el-Fattah with President Sisi. He pressed for Alaa’s release, having met his mother Laila Soueif in recent weeks.”

Fattah, a 43-year-old rights campaigner, was detained by Egyptian authorities in September 2019 and subsequently handed a five-year prison sentence for “spreading false news”.

The New Arab